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Monday, July 1, 2013

Most Anticipated Films of 2014: Part 2

Although this may not sound like a
great idea on paper, the humorous trailer definitely sold me. Lord and Miller
have directed 21 Jump Street and the
animated film Cloudy with A Chance of
Meatballs. They’re also writing the screenplay.

The film has a star-studded cast featuring
Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, and Will Ferrell.
However the highlight might be Arrested
Development star Will Arnett as Batman. Channing Tatum was supposed to be
Superman, but had to drop out. The trailer is embedded below.

MARCH

3/7300: Rise of an
Empire (Noam Murro)

The sequel to the 2007 film 300 (Zack Snyder) was originally
supposed to come out this August, but has been pushed back to next March. Murro
has only directed one previous film, 2008’s Smart
People starring Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker. The movie follows
the plot of an upcoming Frank Miller graphic novel titled Xerxes.

Returning from the first film are
Rodrigo Santoro (Lost) as Xerxes and
Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) as
Queen Gorgo. Eva Green also appears as Artemisia. This probably won’t be a
great film, but I’m curious to see how this turns out anyway. Check out the trailer here.

3/28 Noah (Darren
Aronofsky)

This is definitely a contender for
the most exciting film of 2014. Darren Aronofsky is one of the most talented
directors of our time, having made amazing films such as Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, and Black Swan. The script has leaked online and it is excellent. I’m
curious to see how Christians react to the portrayal of Noah.

Noah is loosely based on the
biblical story. It stars Russell Crowe as the title character and Jennifer
Connelly as his wife. Anthony Hopkins and Emma Watson are also featured. Clint
Mansell, who has done the music for all of Aronofsky’s films, is again writing
the score.

APRIL

4/4Captain America:
The Winter Soldier (Russo Brothers)

The First Avenger is back in the
sequel to the 2011 Marvel Studios film. This will be the third time Chris Evans
is portraying the character, the second being the 2012 film The Avengers. Scarlett Johansson will be
reprising her role from Iron Man 2
and The Avengers as the Black Widow;
the same goes for Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders and Maria
Hill. The large amount of Avengers cast members has led some fans to view this
as a sort of Avengers 1.5.

Robert Redford is making his first
Marvel Cinematic Universe appearance as Alexander Pierce, a high-ranking SHIELD
member who is rumored to be a villain. Also joining the series is Anthony
Mackie as The Falcon, Frank Grillo as Crossbones, and UFC fighter Georges St.
Pierre as Batroc the Leaper.

Sebastian Stan returns as Bucky
Barnes (who appeared to die in the first film), but this time, he’s the
villainous Winter Soldier. In the comics, Barnes is thought dead, but reappears
as a brainwashed Soviet agent. He had a
relationship with Black Widow, so it will be interesting to see if this is
carried over to the film.

The Russo Brothers are directing,
which is somewhat of an odd choice, seeing as they are mainly known for
comedies such as the mediocre You, Me,
and Dupree and the TV show Community.
However, I’ve enjoyed all the MCU films so far, so I have confidence in their
choices, which often seem odd at first.

4/18Transcendence
(Wally Pfister)

This is
Pfister’s first film as director, but he has a great resume as cinematographer,
including Moneyball and Christopher
Nolan films such as Inception, Memento,
and all three of his Batman movies. Nolan is an executive producer on Transcendence. The movie is about
scientists trying to develop computers than can surpass the abilities of the
human brain.

The cast includes Johnny Depp,
Morgan Freeman, Kate Mara (House of
Cards), Cillian Murphy (Batman Begins),
and Paul Bettany. The screenplay was written by Jack Paglen, who is also
writing the upcoming sequel to Ridley Scott’s Prometheus. The film is being distributed by Warner Brothers.

MAY

5/2The Amazing
Spider-Man 2 (Marc Webb)

Webb returns to direct the second
film in the rebooted franchise starring Andrew Garfield. Also returning is Emma
Stone (Superbad) as Spider-Man’s
girlfriend Gwen Stacy. There are several new additions to the cast as well.
Jamie Foxx joins as the main villain, the blue-skinned Electro. Paul Giamatti
plays the villainous Rhino.

Furthermore, Chris Cooper will be
playing Norman Osborne AKA The Green Goblin. He’s the head of Oscorp, which was
featured in the first film, but his character was only hinted at. Dane DeHaan
plays his son, Harry Osborne, in the role played by James Franco in the
original trilogy. The character of Mary Jane Watson was also cast, but now she
is apparently being saved for the third movie.

Sony has already announced the
release dates for the third and fourth film in the series. Number three will
come out in June 2016 and the fourth in May 2018. This is very far in advance
for a studio to declare a release date. They likely want to claim these highly
competitive summer spots.